How to free up storage space on your Mac

macOS Sierra and later can save space by storing your content in the cloud. And new tools make it easy to find and remove large or unneeded files.

Optimized Storage in macOS Sierra and later can save space by storing your content in the cloud and making it available on demand. When storage space is needed, files, photos, movies, email attachments, and other files that you seldom use are stored in the cloud automatically. Each file stays right where you last saved it, and downloads when you open it. Files that you’ve used recently remain on your Mac, along with optimized versions of your photos.

To begin, choose About This Mac from the Apple () menu, then click Storage. You'll see an overview of your free space and the space used by different categories of files, including apps, documents, and photos:

Click the Manage button to see recommendations for optimizing your storage. You'll see fewer options if some of them are already turned on.

Store in iCloud

Click the Store in iCloud button, then choose from these options:

Desktop and Documents. Store all files in these two locations in iCloud Drive. When storage space is needed, only the files you recently opened are kept on your Mac, so that you can easily work offline. Files that are stored only in the cloud show a download icon, which you can double-click to download the original file. Learn more about this feature.

Photos. All original, full-resolution photos and videos are stored in iCloud Photo Library. When storage space is needed, only space-saving (optimized) versions of photos are kept on your Mac. To download the original photo or video, just open it.

Optimize Storage

Click the Optimize button, then choose from these options.

Automatically remove watched iTunes movies and TV shows. When storage space is needed, iTunes movies or TV shows that you already watched are removed from your Mac. Click the download icon next to a movie or TV show to download it again.

Download only recent attachments. Mail automatically downloads only the attachments that you recently received. You can manually download any attachments at any time by opening the email or attachment, or saving the attachment to your Mac.

Don't automatically download attachments. Mail downloads an attachment only when you open the email or attachment, or save the attachment to your Mac.

Empty Trash Automatically

Empty Trash Automatically permanently deletes files that have been in the Trash for more than 30 days.

Reduce Clutter

Reduce Clutter helps identify large files and files you might no longer need. Click the Review Files button, then choose any of the file categories in the sidebar, such as Applications, Documents, GarageBand, iOS Files, iTunes, or Trash.

Some categories allow you delete files directly. Move your pointer over the file name, then click to immediately and permanently delete the file. If you purchased the file from the Mac App Store, iBooks Store, or iTunes Store, you might be able to download it again.

Other categories show the total storage space used by the files in each app. You can then open the app and decide whether to delete files from within it.

Learn more

When you duplicate a file on an APFS-formatted volume, that file doesn't use additional storage space on the volume. Deleting a duplicate frees up only the space required by any data you might have added to the duplicate. If you no longer need any copies of the file, you can recover all of the storage space by deleting both the duplicate and the original file.